The Missing Links: July 2023

Friday 28 July 2023

Granville Links Golf Club, Granville, France

https://www.golfdegranville.com

White tees: 5984m, par 72, slope 136

Red tees: 4793m, par 72, slope 126

On a warm sunny day with a light breeze we found our way to the only true links course in France. Granville is just north of the town of Granville in the small village of Breville-sur-Mer on the Normandy coast with views to the Channel Islands on a clear day. Golf was first proposed on the land in 1912 and a course opened in 1914 but was almost immediately taken over by the military as a training ground for the First World War. It wasn't until 1921 that work started on a definitive design by Harry Colt who designed many notable courses including Muirfield.

The fifth green with the elevated
6th tee behind

The course is set on true links land between the village and the sea although there are limited views of the sea but this is mitigated by the beauty of the wildflowers and the butterflies which abound. Unfortunately the course was rather worn and is obviously heavily played but it has the typical crumpled fairways and sloping greens of a links course. The quality of the greens was disappointing and they were rather slow for a links course. There was an unusual distribution of holes with only one par 3 on the first nine and the lower handicap indices mainly on the back nine.

The bunkers have revetted faces

The first and the ninth are par fives in opposite directions. The second is a tricky par 3 which is blind to the base of the pin with a sloping green and all the others on the first nine are reasonably short par 4s. The only proper sea views are from the elevated mens' tee at the sixth hole - it is worth the climb! The second nine starts with a weak par 3 which has a plateau green with ravines rather than swales around the whole circumference which we felt was more like crazy golf. The 11th is a lovely par 5 called 'the crater' for the shape of the fairway which leads to an long and narrow elevated green guarded by three bunkers. A flat par three and a par 4 follow and then the 14th and the 15th are across a road and more parkland than links in nature. Back across the road the sixteenth is another par 3 with more huge runoffs but at least, unlike the 10th, it had a backstop. The course finishes with two attractive par 4s.

The elevated green of the 16th hole

The 18th hole with the clubhouse behind

Worth playing? Yes, especially as it is the only true links in France but it is a pity it is not in better condition.

The Links Project

There are 246 true links golf courses in the world and this blog is a record of our attempt to play all of them. My husband Ron and I are keen golfers and I came up with the idea of this project after he gave me the book by George Peper and Malcolm Campbell 'True Links' which lists them all.

The commonest question we are asked about our project is 'How do you define a true links course?' This will be debated by aficionados for long after we have (hopefully) completed our quest and there will never be a correct answer. The strict definition is from the British Golf Museum:

1. The course must be beside a river estuary

2. It must offer partial or occasional views of the sea

3. It must have few trees

4. It must have numerous bunkers

5. It must have nines that run out and back, the front heading to a far point and the back returning to the clubhouse

Peper and Campbell defined their list as follows:

Terrain - how close is the course to the sea? Do the fairways run fast and hard? Do the greens favour a run-on approach? How open is the site? How natural? Is there a freedom from trees? Is the invasion of gorse and brush controlled? How light is the environmental footprint on the land?

Turf - is there a sand base? What grasses are dominant on the fairways and greens? Is the rough managed ( creating biodiversity for flora and fauna)? How well does the course drain?

Weather - how exposed is the site to the elements? What are the typical wind conditions? Does the course play hard and fast all year round? Must temporary greens and tees be used in winter? Is the course susceptible to winter closure?

Peper and Campbell included courses which supplied the correct answers to most of these questions. But however defined, to me the poem by Sir John Betjeman encapsulates the feeling of links golf.